Printing telegraph counting apparatus



Feb. 27, 1940.A T. A. MccANN 2,191,798

PRINTING TELEGRAPH COUNTING APPARATUS Filed May 19, 1938 NH w f4 PfPff/"ORA rok .1

By www ATTORNEY l Patented reha-1, 1940 UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICEPRINTING TELEGBAPH COUNTING APPABA TUS Application May 19, 1938, SerialNo. 208,900

4 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in communication transmissionapparatus, and more particularly to mechanism for indicating at thesending end of a communication circuit 5 the number of line-feedsignaling operations in a message transmitted with a telegraph printer.

An object of the present invention is to indicate at, the sending end ofa communication circuit an accurate count of the number of lines in amessage as it is being perforated or transy mitted. More specificallystated this object is to indicate at the transmitting end an accuratecount of the number of lines recorded on form sheets at a remotelylocated page printer which is writing invoices or the like on a singlesheet or attached sheets wherein the successive forms or invoices may beof uniform vertical length but on which are typed a variant number oflines of typed material.

In printing telegraph practice there have come to be used two generaltypes of devices, one in which the record is printed on a continuousstrip of material and where the printing element is stationary withrespect to the platen such as is exemplified by United States Patent1,745,633 granted to S. Morton et al. on February 4, 1930, and anotherin which the record ls printed transversely by a movable, or floating,printing element upon a page or bulletin as is disclosed in UnitedStates Patent No. 1,904,164 granted to S. Morton et al. on April 18,1933. These two general classes of devices differing structurally as maybe seen from the references are nevertheless controllable by and capableof transmitting the same class of signaling impulses so that the devicesof either class may be connected with those of the other and operatedassociatively. Since, however, the former class of device, which forconvenience will be referred to hereinafter as tape printers are adaptedto print consecutively without interruption for purposes of carriagereturn or line-feed operation, and since in contradistinct-ion therewiththe latter class of device, which for convenience will be referred tohereinafter as page printers may not be thus continuously operated, butmust of necessity receive line-feed and carriage-return signals, thissole distinction makes it impracticable commercially to use the twoclasses of devices together, that is, in communication with each otherwithout some means of indicating in connection with the transmitterassociated with the tape printer the `approach of the end of a line ofpage printing. Accordingly, when it is desired to use the two printerstogether a character counter such as described in United States Patent2,018,368, granted to R. A. Lake on October 26, 1935, may be attached toa tape printer which will record the character operations individuallyand indicate by a special signal when a predetermined number ofcharacters have been transmitted.

The character counter is also useful wherein the transmitted message isfirst perforated in tape preparatory to its automatic transmissionthrough the line later. For applications in which the received copy istyped on organized printed forms, however, the character counter isinsufflcient. A line-feed counter is required to indicate to theperforator or tape printer operator 15 the number of line-feedoperations used in the message, so that a sufficient number ofadditional line-feed operations may be included to bring the succeedingform in the receiving machine into position for the first line of thenext message. A further need for the line-feed counter is to afford theoperator indications of lines which are to be left blank so that theorganized form may be properly typed with respect to the printedheadings, line and spaces 0n the form. Further, a line-feed counter .isrequired when it is desired to have each message occupy uniform lengthsof continuous roll stationery wherein the printer is not typing on formsscored at uniform vertical intervals. "0

According to the present invention a linefeed counter is provided forordinarily indicating at the sending end of a communication circuitduring transmission, an accuratecount of the number of lines comprisinga transmitted message, whether blank lines or lines of type material.Such uniform organization of messages is particularly applicable wherethe messages are received on form sheets such as are usually employedfor recording orders, invoices, bills of goods, bills of lading, etc.,that may be transmitted between stations of an intercommunicationsystem, However, uniform lengths of messages are also desired atstations receiving them on continuous roll plain stationery. In .45transmitting information that must be recorded on forms or sheets ofuniform length at a receiving station, it is, in many cases, necessaryto skip, or leave blank, certain lines in order to reach a line whereininformation must be furnished in answer to some stock question containedon the form or sheet. The counter of the present invention is concernedmost with the skipping of lines, that is, leaving blank a predeterminednumber of lines at various points in the message that is beingtransmitted and with sending the proper number of line-feed signals tobring the succeeding forms into position for the first line of typing.Whether or not, but in particular when the transmitting or perforatingoperator is working blind that is 'when no printed record of thetransmitted message on a printed form similar to that in the receivingpage printer is recorded at the sending point, the order orinvoice'would be correctly received on the form sheet at a distant pointif the transmitting or perforating operator is provided at all times'with an accurate indication of the number of line-feed operations usedin typing the particular message on which the operator is working.

A feature of the invention is the provision of a simplified arrangementfor operating the counting or stepping mechanism, without the use ofelectric circuits and for mechanically restoring the stepping mechanismand indicator whenever some predetermined number of line-feed signalshave been transmitted.

Other objects and features will be noted in the following detaileddescription when taken in connection with the attached drawing andappended claims of which:

Fig. l is a cross-sectional end elevational view of the operativestructure of the line-feed indicator shown attached to the housing of ateletypewriter machine; and

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the linefeed counters which viewis taken along the dot and dash line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, housing II of the indicator device isflxedly attached, as shown, to upright plate I2 which is securelyfastened to housing I3 of the teletypewriter printer. Member I4 to whichis securely fastened key cap I5 is one of a series of key levers of ateletypewriter employed for transmitting signals over an outgoingcircuit. Loosely connected to key lever I4 is rod I6 which is pivotallyconnected by pin I1 to a bar I8. Bar I8 slidably extends through a castbase block I8 of solid material to a U-shaped block 28 with which it isintegrally formed. At the right end of block 28 and integraly formedtherewith is a guide member 2|, which is arranged to extend downwardthrough an aperture in the bottom of housing II. A coil spring 22 ispositioned on bar I8 so that when key I5 is depressed, block 28 and itsguide member 2| are drawn downward to develop a potential energy in coilspring 22 so that when key I5 is released block 28 and guide member 2Iwill automatically restore to normal. Pawl 24 is pivotally mounted onpin 23 connected across the side arms of the U-shaped block 28. Pawl 24is held in engagement with ratchet wheel 25 by a spring member 28 whichis securely fastened by screws to the end of the left arm of bar 28 asshown in Fig. 2.

The right end of block I8 has integrally formed therewith a halfcylinder 21, through the center of which is a boring into which isslidably arranged a key rod 58. On the free end of key rod 58 issecurely fastened a button 29. Immediately to the rear of the halfcylinder formation is a vertical plate 38 which is cast as an integralpart of block I8. To the vertical support 38 is fastened a pin 3I onwhich is pivotally mounted -pawl 32 maintained in engagement withratchet wheel 25 with spring member 33. Spring member 33 is securelyfastened to the left end of block I8 (Fig. 1) by screws 34 and is heldrigid for more than half -of its length by vertical plate 35 which isalso secured to block I8 by screws 34. Also to the vertical support 38but on theV opposite side to pin 3l, is pivotally mounted by means ofscrew 38 a release lever 31. Release lever 31 is pivotally connected tothe end of key rod 58 as shown in Fig. 1. At the'free, or upper. end ofrelease lever 31 is securely fastened anv elongated pin 38 which extendssumciently to contact both pawls 24 and 32. Rigidly mounted at the upperpart of vertical plate 38 is stop pin 38 for restraining the backwardmovement of release lever 31 against the tension of spring 48.

Fixedly supported by upright plate I2 is a U- shaped member 4I forproviding a bearing for shaft 42. Fixedly mounted on shaft 42 areratchet wheel 25 and indicator dial 43. Positioned around shaft 42 is aninvolute coil spring 44, one end of which is fixed to the ratchet wheelby pin 45 and the other end is flxedly attached by pin 48 to support 4I.A stop pin 58 is securely fastened to the ratchet wheel to serve inconjunction with a stop pin 5I securely fastened to U-shaped member 4Ias shown in Fig. 2, as a means of stopping the rotation of the ratchetwheel when pawls 24 and 32 are moved out of engagement with the wheeland the wheel is thereby permitted to rotate to its normal positionunder the energy stored in coil spring 44.

Indicator 43 has arranged around its 'periphery consecutive numbers, 0,1, 2, 3 etc., up to say 66 or any number representing the number oflines provided for an order or invoice form. To provide the operatorwith a visual indication of the number of line-feed operations, anaperture 48 is cut in housing II so that only one number on dial 43 isvisible at any time.

Operation Upon transmission of a line-feed signal by depressing key I5,pawl 24 is drawn downward following the motion of the key lever I4through the linkages I6, I8 and 28. When key lever I5 is at the bottomof its downward travel the ratchet wheel 25 has been advancedcounter-clockwise one tooth with respect to retaining pawl 32. Retainingpawl 32 through the action of resilient member 33 thereby engages thesucceeding tooth on ratchet wheel 25 thereby restraining clockwiserotation of the ratchet wheel imparted by coil spring 44. By this meansratchet wheel 25 remains in the advanced position when key I5 isreleased and the succeeding digit on the indicator dial 43 is observedthrough aperture 48. When key I5 is released it is returned to thenormal position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 by action of spring 22 on bar I8.In this position pawl 24 engages the same tooth on ratchet wheel 25 aspawl 32 and the mechanism is in condition to indicate the next line-feedoperation in the manner `iust described.

The operator, knowing the line-feed length of the printed form orinvoices on which the message is to be recorded by the distant pageprinter and the line-feed spaces required between the items of themessage is provided with a facility for properly aligning the typedmessage to correspond to the spaces for these items provided on the formor invoice as may readily be illustrated by the following example:Assume that the forms in the distant page printer are eleven inches orsixty-six line-feed long, three lines are used for the address and tenlines further down on the page, space is provided for the first item ofseveral which may be a list for example of a bill of goods. Assumefurther that the operator is required to prepare the message inperforated tape for subsequent transmission to the line. Starting withthe indicator dial at zero, the tape is perforated. As described abovethe indicator is advanced one digit on each operation of the line-feedkey. Completing the address the operator sees the digit 3 showing ondial 43. Knowing that the ilrst item of goods is to be typed, tenline-feed spaces down on the form, the operator depresses line-feed keyl5 ten times or until dial 43 shows digit 13 through the aperture 48. Asmany items as are required for the particular bill are then perforatedin the tape. When perforation of these items is complete, suppose theoperator notes that digit 56 is showing through aperture 48. Theoperator simply perforates a continuation of line-feed signals untildigit 66 is indicated on dial 43. Thereupon, release button 29 is pushedcausing pawls 24 and 32 to disengage the teeth on ratchet wheel 25permitting it to rotate clockwise under action of involute coil spring44 until stop pin 41 engages back stop 48. Ratchet wheel 25 is now inthe normal or starting position and digit 0 on dial 43 shows throughaperture 48. On restoring the indicator to normal, material for thesucceeding form may be prepared in a manner described above. It isevident that the device is applicable to other operating conditions thanthat described in the example referred to as illustrative of thisoperation and is not limited to blind perforation of transmitting tapenor to the preparation of form material of any given or uniform length.

What is claimed is:

1. In a printing telegraph system, a tape printer, a source of signalpotential connected to said tape printer, a page printer, a signaltransmission medium interconnecting said printers, a

line-feed signal key forming a part of said tapeprinter for causing aline-feed signal to be sent from said source to said page printer, and acounting device connected to said tape printer and mechanically operatedby said line-feed signal key for counting the line-feed signalstransmitted to said page printer.

2. In a printing telegraph system, a tape printer. a source of signalpotential connected to said tape printer, a page printer, a signaltransmission medium interconnecting said printers, a tape perforatorincluding a moving tape and forming a part of said tape printer, aline-feed signal key forming a part of said tape printer for causing inconjunction with said source of signal potential a line-feed signalcombination to be perforated in said perforator tape, a tape transmitterfor impressing said line-feed signals perforated on I said perforatortape on said transmission medium,

and a device mechanically connected to and operated by said line-feedsignal key for counting and indicating the number of line-feed signalsperforated in said tape for subsequent transmission to said pageprinter.

3. In a printing telegraph system, a tape printer having a movable tape,a source of signal potential connected to said tape printer, a pageprinter having a movable page, a transmission circuit interconnectingsaid printers, a tape perforator including a moving tape and forming apart of said tape printer, a line-feed signal key forming a part of saidtape printer for causing in conjunction with said source of signalpotential a line-feed signal combination to be perforated in said tape,a tape transmitter for subsequently transmitting signals correspondingto said line-feed signal combinations over said transmission circuit,means in said page printer for moving said movable page in response toeach of said line-feed signals received from said transmission circuitand a device mechanically connected to and operated by said line-feedsignal key for counting and indicating during perforation the totalnumber of line-feed signal combinations perforated in said perforatortape.

4. In a printing telegraph system, a tape perforating device, and atransmitter controlled by the perforated tape and adapted to impressupon an outgoing circuit electrical impulses determined by theperforations of the tape, and means enabling the operator of the tapeperforating device to prepare tape records suitable for controlling apage printer at a distant point in the outgoing circuit comprising aline-shift key for performing a line-shift perforating operation in thetape, said means including an indicator mechanically connected to theline-shift key to be operated thereby whereby the operator is apprlsedof the position of a page which is being printed at the distant pageprinter.

THOMAS A. MCCANN.

